The Bobcat Nation

For my birthday a few weeks ago, I was the lucky recipient of a brand new turntable! I've been planning for a long time to begin an awesome record collection and now the time has come to begin what I foresee to be a potentially expensive and fun hobby.

So what say you BN? What are your favorite albums of all time?

I'll begin: (To name a few)
The Eagles - Hotel California
Matchbox 20 - Yourself or Someone Like You (so far this album is fetching around $275 on ebay)
Marshall Tucker Band - Carolina Dreams

Awesome! I got a turntable last year for Christmas and have made a few vinyl album purchases myself. I've bought mostly used records, if you can find them in good shape.
There are 2 websites I have bought used stuff from, one was discogs.com and I can't remember the name of the other but I'll see if I can dig it up. Anyway, the condition of the stuff I bought from both websites was as advertised, so they seem trustworthy.

I bought a used (but decent shape) copy of Led Zeppelin II which is my personal favorite Zep album. It was around $20 used. Also bought a Beatles Revolver re-issue which of course isn't as cool as an original copy, but it was new and fairly cheap, about $30 I believe. Last Fall, I stopped into Cactus Records in downtown Bozeman and found a used copy of AC/DC Back in Black for about $20.

Other stuff I like or want:
Pink Floyd (The Wall, Dark Side of Moon)
Pearl Jam - Ten
Michael Jackson Thriller
Fleetwood Mac Rumors.

TIrwin24 wrote:For my birthday a few weeks ago, I was the lucky recipient of a brand new turntable! I've been planning for a long time to begin an awesome record collection and now the time has come to begin what I foresee to be a potentially expensive and fun hobby.

So what say you BN? What are your favorite albums of all time?

I'll begin: (To name a few)
The Eagles - Hotel California
Matchbox 20 - Yourself or Someone Like You (so far this album is fetching around $275 on ebay)
Marshall Tucker Band - Carolina Dreams

anything with Grandmas and reindeer.

For recent music "Castaways and Cutouts" by The Decemberists

For older music I'll go with Disreli Gears by Cream.

I found them both for cheap a funky record shop in Berkeley, CA.

TIrwin24 wrote:For my birthday a few weeks ago, I was the lucky recipient of a brand new turntable! I've been planning for a long time to begin an awesome record collection and now the time has come to begin what I foresee to be a potentially expensive and fun hobby.

So what say you BN? What are your favorite albums of all time?

I'll begin: (To name a few)
The Eagles - Hotel California
Matchbox 20 - Yourself or Someone Like You (so far this album is fetching around $275 on ebay)
Marshall Tucker Band - Carolina Dreams

Geez, usually if a wife wants to get rid of her husband she doesn't also want to get rid of all of his money as well. I mean congratulations on your new all-consuming hobby. I have been into vinyl for about four years now, and I can tell you that my record collection is nowhere near large enough.

My thoughts on vinyl. It is amazing to me that head to head vinyl sounds so much better than mp3's. It isn't even close, you get a rich sound out of vinyl that just doesn't come out of the cheap downloads, and I like the crackles. I do believe that Neil Youngs' PONO (or something similar) might someday compete well with vinyl, but we were fools to think that we could actually get something worthwhile for nothing, or almost next to nothing. I still have music on my phone, but it pales in comparison to what comes out of the turntable.

One thing about vinyl that is worth considering is that you don't want to buy a record of bad music just to get that one song that you do like. Time was, I would buy a record just for a song, but if I want to listen to it on vinyl I want the whole record to be worth listening to. It is something to consider.

New vinyl is amazing. The records being made today are 180g vinyl and are much better quality than the records that were made when I was a kid. The sound is better and they are much sturdier. It is worthwhile to get new music on vinyl.

If you take the time to go through the cheap stacks (Hastings has large cheap stacks) you won't really find all that much worthwhile, but rather will just see the same Herb Alpert, Barbara Streisand, and Poco records over and over again. I remember when every household had Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, but good luck finding that record anywhere now. You will really see which records have stood the test of time, and which ones are as popular now as they ever were. By the way, you will find plenty of Hotel California, but in case you don't I have a copy that I would love to sneak out of the house while my wife is not looking.

I decided early on that I was not in it for record collecting ... I didn't care to have a valuable album that I couldn't play. I have this sealed Echo & the Bunnymen album, but damned if I know what to do with it. I got it for two bucks, so I am sure I could make money off of it, but it probably isn't worth so much that I shouldn't just play it. Oh well. On the flip side I have this REM record from 1981 -- Chronic Town --that has water damage on the cover basically it stuck to the record next to it. But it plays just fine, so I am totally happy with it. Sure it would be better with the cool gargoyle picture, but it works.

Have fun.

Edited to add: Frank's Wild Years by Tom Waits.

Sportin' Life wrote: New vinyl is amazing. The records being made today are 180g vinyl and are much better quality than the records that were made when I was a kid. The sound is better and they are much sturdier. It is worthwhile to get new music on vinyl.

Agreed. I've gone to the books and have been learning everything I can about records and I've been able to listen to the 180g vinyl vs a 150g or anything less and the difference is pretty astounding.

With the turntable, I received Moondance by Van Morrison in the 180g vinyl. The sound is absolutely amazing.

I currently own about 2500 vinyl records, and counting, and in the 70's I had 3 times that. I got rid of many title that I wished now that I had kept. Record buying does not have to be as expensive as you think. There are some good values at the local used stores but for the most part they are over priced. A good source is Sacks and the prices can't be beat.
Twenty dollars for a new vinyl record is about average but you can find a lot of of good values on Amazon and I have paid as little as $1.50 and on average $5 for some rally good sounding recordings. You have to be patient and really look, especially if you are bidding. Records graded VG to VG+ are very listenable some I have purchased should have been graded excellent. I think many sellers under grade their product.

The one thing that I struggle with is freight. On average you will pay $4 for a single disk with additional disks costing 50 cents to $1 each. I find myself looking for multiple titles from a vender to leverage the freight cost. I do not thinks you have to pay new prices for 180 gram reissues unless you can't stand any noise...and even then a you may hear some noise on lead ins and fades. A good phono-cartridge is necessary, but again, you do not have to go crazy. A good Grado cartridge or Audio Technica (I have both) valued at $100, and you should be able to pay less than the list price, have served me well.

I love vinyl and use a lot of what I buy on my radio shift at KGLT as well as for my ultimate enjoyment. Happy hunting.